S.T.A.M. Mols

The Urban Context of the Serapeum at Ostia

The last decades have seen a fair amount of research into the Eastern cults in the harbours of Rome, and discussion on several aspects of the cults that were adopted from Egypt. A number of these cases will be critically analysed here, in the context of recent research in other fields. It is explicitly not the purpose to aim for completeness here. The known material is, by now, so substantial that it warrants extensive research, leading to a large monograph. Here, instead, I would like to pay specific attention to the location and urban contexts of the sanctuaries to Egyptian gods in Ostia and Portus. In her work I culti orientali ad Ostia from 1962 Maria Floriani Squarciapino clearly outlines the state of affairs in the area of Egyptian cults in Ostia.1 She thinks that the impulse for the founding of sanctuaries for Oriental deities in this particular place came from Rome, and not from the steady stream of mariners who came into town. The Serapeum of Ostia postdates the Iseum and Serapaeum at Rome itself, which might be used to support this claim.2 Furthermore, Squarciapino argues that the cult fitted well into the urban environment of Italic towns from Hadrianic times onwards. She further emphasises the specificity of Ostia,

Een Romeinse slangenzuil

Bespreking van: Martin Beckmann,The Column of Marcus Aurelius. The genesis and meaning of a Roman imperial monument Chapel Hill:The University of North Carolina Press ,2011 9780807877777

Furniture, Greece and Rome

Traditionally handbooks on Greek and Roman interiors state that ancient houses were sparsely furnished, with only the most necessary items. This assumption is highly influenced by the nineteenth century, as in that age most ideas about ancient domestic culture, including interior decoration, were formed. Aristocratic houses in nineteenth century Europe were anything but sparsely furnished, especially compared to what was known about Classical antiquity. After posing this assumption, the handbooks list the items of furniture used in antiquity, based on sources of very diverse origin, mostly departing from depictions of furniture in Greek and Roman art. These are labeled with names used for furniture in ancient literature and sometimes epigraphical material. Keywords: archaeology; arts and architecture; cultural history

Woodworking and Construction

Bespreking van: Roger B. Ulrich,Roman Woodworking New Haven:Yale University Press ,2007 978-0-300-10341-0